By: Michael DeVenney
“The most ambitious and rewarding work brings with it the most challenges … the question is what are your going to do about it.” Keith Yamashita
Intending should mean doing – especially if our intentions are truly important – but it doesn’t work that way. No matter how important, exciting or easy they are good intentions do not lead naturally to good results.
We have become so consumed by the short term that we don’t do what we need to do to win in the long term. Our lives and work become emergency wards.
Once the vision is in place and the strategy is set … we file it in a drawer and get caught up in the next great thing. We suffer from shiny object syndrome and commitment creep – we are either caught by the brilliance of new ideas or distracted by the daily little things we agree to do that add up to doing second things first.
Working as a team is like being under the Big Top – someone being shot from a cannon here, someone riding in on an elephant there, and the stress of performing each night for the crowd’s applause.
Achieving success often requires zooming out so you can see the bigger picture – once you see the big picture the actions you need to take become clearer. We need a North Star to guide our decisions and actions.
We need clarity and focus to win the game.
What gets in our way is a slow leak rather than an explosion. The consequences of not taking the right strategic actions are often not immediate – they come later.
- 50% of heart attack survivors do not follow an exercise regime after the event
- 92% of weight loss program participants drop out before realizing the goal
- 97% of smokers who try to quit don’t
In business, when you ask a leadership team was success looks like for the various strategic initiatives you generally get different answers from each person – how can the organization achieve their greatest results when no one really understands what victory looks like? Sometimes the leader is the only person who actually knows the end game – without communication, it is a lonely road when no one knows where they are going. Many professionals follow the “start and stop” strategy where each few months they invest in the new solution, put in effort and then before the results actually start being realized, move on the next great plan.
What gets in our way is of our own making.
- With no clarity of the end result, people can end up going any direction.
- We are obsessed with tactics – with every weekly team meeting, we talk about old problems, new ideas and go down the same old rat holes – we end up on different pages.
- With increasing short term pressure to produce more and faster, we lose sight of the long-term vision and take side roads.
Many times we can even produce results but we work much harder and don’t actually realize our potential.
When you think of your favorite teams, what would happen if each of the players had a different picture of winning and simply played from their own game plan? You may win by default but the likelihood is a chaotic game with no real direction. Welcome to the business world.
Think about a pinpoint. If we worked individually and together with a shared understanding of what winning looked like and focused on taking those actions that generate the best results and practiced them daily, what would happen? We would work from the same page with our eye on the prize – our actions and decisions would be made from a strategic plan. We would simply what we do, leverage our strengths, accelerate our actions and multiply our results. Rather than an emergency room, you would be working as a finely tuned symphony.
We need the ability to be accountable and take ownership of our future.
We need clarity and focus:
- What does winning look like for you? What is the driving ambition and purpose that shapes you and your organization to achieve and work collectively? What would you achieve?
- What is your strategy to get there? What is the smart way you need to go about doing things to achieve your win? What are the four key actions you and your organization need to take to generate the best results?
Invent a prototype of the end result. Many individuals and teams get stuck because they simply can’t see the end state. No one knows what steps to take as the destination is not clear. Rather than debating the direction, envision the end state and work back.
We need to clarify the North Star for our game – the guiding purpose. It is tricky finding the North Star through the haze sometimes but you need to locate it, define it, help others see it and navigate by it.
Start with the end in mind. Define the win and describe the results that occur with success – the four or five key outcomes. Share these with your team, keep them in front of you each week to assess opportunities, make decisions, resolve problems and build sustainable success.
With a clear vision, focus on the right actions. Your habits and the habits of your organization will determine your future. If you want to distance yourself from the masses and enjoy unique success, understand that your habits determine your future.
Studies have shown that up to 90% of our behavior is based on habits. The problem is distinguishing good habits from the poor ones. Negative habits breed negative consequences, successful habits create positive rewards.
When you ask someone to list their regular activities, you often see 15 to 20 tasks and actions. We need to focus 80% of our time, energy and resources on those 4 or 5 actions that create the best results – and not get distracted by the rest.
With a clear vision, work back. Knowing the end results you want to achieve, think back as to the 4 or 5 actions that you can take consistently that would generate those results. Do them every week first and foremost. We win with consistent persistence – you will never achieve great results in your business without consistent and persistent action.
Be accountable with your drivers – those 4 or 5 actions you identified to get your results – and measure your progress each week to stay on track. What you measure, gets done – and better.
Is it clear what victory is and do you know the leading indicators of success?
Are your actions in line with your vision of success?
Ask these questions for you and ask them of your team. Clarify what winning looks like and focus on taking the smart actions to realize your success.
Life will always give you consequences related to your actions – think about if you are creating negative consequences or positive rewards.
“You have brains in your head,
You have feet in your shoes,
You can steer yourself
Any direction you choose”
Dr. Seuss
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